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 Software : VideoWave 3.0 |
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Rating:  - For the right system, excellent for the money
I bought a copy for $10 several years ago to give to my son who was about 12 years old at the time. I didn't have to help him very much at all and he was mixing his own animated cartoons with clips of himself and friends using our old camcorder, mixing the Simpsons with The Matrix, mixing in different sound clips, etc.
For $10 at that time, the ability to produce MPEG2 along with other types of video (which allowed my son to enter a contest for short clips for TV) was pretty impressive to me. Now, several years later, it's more the norm.
From reading the other reviews it seems that there are some systems which don't support it very well (or vice versa). This leads me to believe that the main flaw may be not clarifying system requirements. We used a Pentium with Hauppauge's WinTV.
Rating:  - Stay away from this piece of [garbage] at all costs...
Put nicely, Videosuite 3.0 is terrible. It took me a couple days to figure out how to bring in video (MGI is so smart that they don't include an instruction manual with the software). After I finally had to have a computer-expert friend come over and make the thing work, it made me want to cry. The process of puting clips together is basically impossible, and adding music...forget about it. All I wanted was a little program to help me get started in making skate videos. Usually, when software falls short, the effort itself is worth some praise, but Videowave III...holy crap. I repeat: avoid at all costs, except if you need a really expensive coaster. On second thought, it's so bad that it would probably make a terrible coaster too. I returned the thing a week after I made the mistake of buying it....
Rating:  - Good With the Right Hardware
I have used all of the versions of Video Wave and I even have Version 4.0. I've also used the Ulead products and the Home Video from Canon.
Video Wave III works, if your pc is configured for it. It has a limited number of video cards with which it works well. It doesn't seem to like AMD processors as much as it does Pentium III's.
The instructions are almost useless and you can get four very different sets of instructions from their technical support people if you call with the same question four times because the first three solutions made things worse.
I was able to turn out an acceptable industrial video (28 minutes) with it. There is no good way to add narration.
The learning curve is more in getting your hardware and the needed drivers from MGI and others to match the many settings you can make inside of Video Wave IIII than in actually using the software. The interface is good. And it can do many things very well.
It doesn't like Windows 98 2nd Edition or Windows 2000. I have to wipe it clean and reinstall it quite often. But, it is the best of what is out there at the advanced home video producer level.
I just tried to install 4.0 and it wouldn't install on a system which did the best job with 3.0. So, I'll be back in touch with their tech people. It took over 23 hours of actual back and forth with them to make 3.0 work acceptably.
Rating: - Enjoyable, fun and easy.
Originally bought this to upgrade VideoWave SE that came with my Iomega Buz analog capture card. Unfortunately it was not compatible with the hardware. Well my analog camcorder died and I ugraded to a Sony digital 8 and a firewire card. Have been using 3.0 now for 4 months making home videos and the familiar interface from SE has been added plus. Haven't had time to dig too deep into this program but for making quick home movies, it is easy to use if you at least take a quick look at the instructions or use the packaged tutoring cd. The only problem I've had is when I plug the camera in or turn the camera on after the program is started, most of the time it does not recognise the camera is there. So, make sure your camera is plugged in and turned on before you open the program. Other than that I have not had any problems.
Rating: - a good quality product
this product is great, with a few glitches. i like the interface once you get used to it. i noticed that after producing videos, transitions have a bit of a 'hiccup' when the transitions start and end. my system is custom built with 256 mb ram and an athlon 650, and a quantum fireball 7200 rpm hard drive, so i know its not the hardware. my biggest problems however, have to do with interfacing the computer with my jvc cam. the dv capture works perfectly, but exporting the finished product to the cam can prove troublesome. overall, however, i think the videos look great, the interface is flexible and you can do a lot with this program. i have pinnacle's studio DV and adobe premiere, but most of the work i do is done with videowave because its quick and simple. i would recommend this product for almost all home and semi professional uses.
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